A Bad Way To Win Converts May 2, 2009

A Bad Way To Win Converts

By Guest Contributor
May 2, 2009

A lesson for churches: When trying to win over unwitting, young souls, don’t try to lure them into your van.

It’s really creepy. And, I’m sure, it’s not what Jesus would have done…

According to Colorado Springs School District 11 officials, a church group tried to lure a seventh-grader into a church van after school, and the girl went home and told her parents…

…

Cornerstone [Baptist Church] is about 2.5 miles from Russell and has created public uproars in the past for baptizing children without their parents’ permission. The church was sued by eight children in the mid-1990s, but a jury decided the church was guilty only of deception.

It’s not the first time the church has been in trouble, either. Check out their rap sheet at the bottom of the Colorado Springs Gazette‘s page.

(Thanks to infideljoe for the link!)

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  • Kids, beware of strangers with candy bibles.

  • Colin M

    This seemed hilarious at first; then I read the “timeline” down at the bottom:

    1999: Five women reported they had been sexually assaulted as teenagers by Charles Dean Miller, Jr., the church’s music director and senior pastor’s son.

    MARCH 2000: Charles Dean Miller Jr. pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sexual abuse of a child by a person in a position of trust. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released from prison on May 9, 2008, and is listed on the Oklahoma sex offender registry as living in Dewey, Okla.

    MARCH 2003: The mother of an 8-year-old girl complained to police that her daughter was forced to disrobe and be baptized when she went to an event at the church.

  • RealismFTW

    Cornerstone Baptist Church: Not above hauling your kids off from school in a white molester van.

  • Mathew Wilder

    But, but Colin, what about freedom of religion!? If Christians believe that diddling little kids is what they’re called by god to do, who are we heathens to naysay them? Seriously, wtf. Cue the “they’re not real Christians” crowd.

  • Gabriel

    I have to wonder why the parents didn’t file a criminal complaint. This sounds very much like attempted kidnaping to me. I know that I would have called the police. I also would have probably beaten the crap out of the responsible people.

  • Ben

    Oh my. This is my hometown, and I have to say, I’m not surprised at all that these sorts of things happen here. This is, after all, the town where Ted Haggard had his church and the home base of Focus on the Family.

  • weaves

    i’d charge them for attempted kidnapping!

  • Baptizing without parents’ permission? I was baptized a Catholic without my permission. Where’s the uproar there?

  • Matto the Hun

    And to think, we are suppose to be the scary bad guys.

    It reminds me of an earlier Simpsons episode, when Flanders was watching the Simpson kids and took them to the river to get baptized when he found out they weren’t.

    The one time Flanders made me flim-did-didly angry.

  • Sandra

    This bit about the Cornerstone Baptist rap sheet got my attention…

    JUNE 1997: A civil court jury decides that eight children who sued the church were not harmed by baptisms, but said they were deceived by the church. Each child was awarded $664.

    Damn! Just $2 more and they could have had $666 each 😉

  • They were just trying to save the kids’ souls. That is much more important than a little suffered trauma on the kids (or parents) part. As any Baptist will tell you, you can’t get to heaven unless you are fully submerged in the Baptism. A little sprinkling won’t cut it. Off to hell you go.

  • dfledermaus

    I wonder what kind of bumpersticker they had on the van?

    “IF THIS VAN IS ROCKIN’ THEN JESUS BEEN STALKIN'”

    ROFL

  • Luther Weeks

    They were just trying to save the kids’ souls.

    Is that why the Bible insists on stoning rape victims?

  • I was, of course, being “poe” in my comment.

  • ethanol

    Matto the Hun:

    Yes, although I did love the emergency baptism kit

  • Twin-Skies

    Remember all those reports of abusive police who’d shoot/tazer/truncheon suspects before asking questions?

    I’m wondering where they are now.

    It seems their brand of police brutality is exactly what’s need to make these van-riding crazies think twice. 🙂